Stephen Sondheim aficionados who have been following the labyrinthine
journey of the songwriter's most recent musical – known in its different
incarnations as Wise Guys, Bounce, Gold, and
Road Show – should be
gladdened to learn that Road Show
(the title that has stuck) will be part of Theatre Rhinoceros' newly announced
season. Four other attractions are in the 2013-14 season that will take place
in several venues as Rhino continues its wayfaring ways in its 36th season
presenting LGBTQ theatrical entertainment.

It's become tradition that each Rhino season contains a new
play by Executive Director John Fisher, and that is how the season will begin
on Sept. 23 at Z Below Theatre. Fisher's To Sleep and Dream
is described as a drama about a father-son
confrontation involving past, future, and a present that includes a coming-out
story.

Sondheim's Road Show
continues the season with performances beginning Jan. 2 at Eureka Theatre. With
a libretto by John Weidman, it follows the adventures of the real-life Mizner
brothers, the gay Addison and straight Wilson, whose get-rich schemes became
reality, and churned moral dilemmas and self-destruction, as they played a
major role in putting Florida on the map as a vacation destination in the
1920s.

The Habit of Art was
Alan Bennett's follow-up to The History Boys,
and it continues the Rhino season on March 27 at Z
Below Theatre. At its core, it creates a fictional encounter between the
unabashedly gay poet W.H. Auden and the more closeted composer Benjamin
Britten. But as one London theater critic wrote after seeing its 2009 debut,
"The play has enough layers to make Pirandello blanch." There is no
space here for a further synopsis, except to say that truth becomes a commodity
that can be bartered.

It's a one-night-only affair as Rhino continues the season
on April 6 at Z Below with its annual Benefit Spectacular, which traditionally
assembles various Rhino alums and luminaries for a variety show and party.

The final attraction of the season is Walk Like a Man,
beginning performances May 28 at ACT's Costume Shop.
This is a theatrical adaptation of Laurinda D. Brown's like-titled book of
monologues and short stories focusing on African-American lesbians. Rhino's
press release borrows from the book's promotional blurb that promises tales
"so hot with passion you'll need somebody to cool you off."

Season tickets are now on sale at therhino.org.

A walk down 42nd St.

A rave review from The New York Times
was not enough to keep It's a Bird, It's a
Plane, It's Superman running for more than
a few months. But with Superman recently back on the big screen, and with the
big guy celebrating his 75th birthday, 42nd Street Moon is opening its new
season on Oct. 2 with the 1966 musical. The show perhaps came too soon to ride
the wave that began with Christopher Reeve's Superman 12 years later. However,
the musical score by Strouse and Adams, of Bye Bye Birdie
fame, is well-regarded.

Artistic Director Greg MacKellan and Producing Director
Stephanie Rhoads announced the 21st Moon season, which continues with its third
visit to I Married an Angel. The 1930
musical with book, music, and lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart begins
its new run on Oct. 30. It's the story of a wealthy banker who gets his wish,
and then has reasons to regret it, when he vows only to marry an angel. Notable
songs from the score include "Spring Is Here" and "I'll Tell the
Man in the Street."

Songwriters Hal Hackady and Larry Grossman have the
unfortunate distinction of writing some of the most high-profile flop Broadway
musicals of recent decades, including Grind, A Doll's Life,
and Minnie's Boys.
But their biggest success was birthed right here in
San Francisco in 1975, and Snoopy!!!
will return to the city as 42nd Street Moon's third show. This sequel to You're
a Good Man, Charlie Brown went on to have
long runs off-Broadway and in London.

Cole Porter provided a hit parade of songs in his 1930
musical The New Yorkers, part of 42nd
Street Moon's new season.

The Moon troupe will next take its turn at creating the kind
of musical it is fond of reviving. Painting the Clouds Away,
arriving April 2, features songs by such fabled
tunesmiths as Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Richard Whiting, and others.
MacKellan and Mark D. Kaufman have written a new story about movie musicals and
the smiles they offered during the Great Depression.

Cole Porter's The New Yorkers had a rough road to Broadway, and by the time it opened in 1930, it
had a cast of nearly 100, three separate orchestras, specialty turns by Jimmy
Durante, and a song banned from the radio. "Love for Sale" was that
song, and no double entendre was
involved; it was sung by a streetwalker who described her profession in AABA
rhymes. The show was conceived as a sendup of various New York types, and
somewhere between Philadelphia and New York gained a plot about gangsters and
high-society dames. Other songs in the score include "I Happen to Like New
York," "Let's Fly Away," and "Take Me Back to
Manhattan."

The season concludes, as is traditional, with a
"salon" dedicated to various Broadway greats. Thou Swell! Thou
Witty! – The Rodgers and Hart Salon
will take place May 12-13 at a venue to be announced. All other productions
will happen at Eureka Theatre. Info on series subscriptions is available at
42ndstmoon.org.